Justice News

Clinton Man Convicted of Murder for Hire

John H. Durham, United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, today announced that a federal jury in Hartford has found JAMES ERIK GODIKSEN, 56, of Clinton, guilty of murder for hire. The trial before U.S. District Judge Vanessa L. Bryant began on July 10, and the jury returned its verdict today.

According to the evidence at trial, in 2016, while he was incarcerated at New Haven Correctional Center, GODIKSEN reached out to other inmates seeking a person who would be willing to kill GODIKSEN’s former wife. Between September 10 and September 14, 2016, GODIKSEN and an ATF special agent acting in an undercover capacity spoke multiple times by phone. During these conversations, GODIKSEN offered to pay the undercover agent $5,000 to murder his “ex-wife,” and provided the agent with a physical description of his former wife, her phone number, her home address, her place of work and the route she typically drove to work. He also told the undercover agent how he would like his former wife to be murdered. GODIKSEN offered the undercover agent additional money if he encountered his former wife’s current boyfriend and killed him, too.

GODIKSEN was arrested on September 14, 2016, after he met with the undercover agent and provided him with a “down payment” of $80, some of which was to be used to purchase a knife.

GODIKSEN has been detained since his arrest. He faces a maximum term of imprisonment of 10 years.

This matter was investigated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Clinton Police Department and Connecticut Department of Correction. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Rahul Kale and Dave Vatti.